Bahrain: A land of hopes

Tahir Haneef

tahir@dt.bh

Manama

With a Taiwan Trade mission all set to make a visit to the middle-east countries including visit Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait from May 22 to June 5, DT News is sharing the take of the Taiwan envoy to Bahrain, Michael T. Chen, regarding the bilateral relations between the Kingdom and Taiwan. 

The delegation that visits the Kingdom consists of 18 well-established Taiwanese suppliers led by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA). Trade Mission of Taiwan to the Kingdom of Bahrain has organized this event to give Bahrain domestic companies an opportunity to discuss trade and investment cooperation with their Taiwanese counterparts.

DT News has discussed with Mr Chen, Representative of the Trade Mission of Taiwan in the Kingdom of Bahrain over the trade visit, Bahrain-Taiwan relations, people, culture, bottlenecks in the smooth trade relations between the two countries and great opportunities available for growth. Excerpts from the discussion:

Which all sectors are participating in this Trade delegation from Taiwan?

Including ICT industry, which is the largest contributor to Taiwan economy, all sectors are participating in this trade mission.

Taiwanese has deep expertise in hardware and software sector, for example HTC- the smart phone company comes from Taiwan and not many are aware about this. The trade delegation consists mostly of import-export suppliers in Taiwan.

Taiwan is very advanced in energy saving technology and environment-friendly products, and GCC countries will be deeply benefitted by associating with our expertise in this area. A prominent Bahraini businessman has selected LED lights made in Taiwan after a search for the best product worldwide. He is trying to introduce it in Bahrain, UAE and Saudi to replace the regular lights.

Taiwan is very similar to Bahrain, in the sense that Taiwan is short on natural resources, but we have top-notch human talent. Originally it was an agrarian economy, but now the share of agriculture in our GDP is less than two percent. Even in agriculture, we have converted it into one that uses hi-tech methods to achieve the best results.

And, we are now in a position to transfer our technology know how to other countries who want to improve their agriculture sector. 

Bahrain is the gateway to GCC, yet, many in Taiwan are not much familiar with the Kingdom. When they talk about GCC, it is only about Dubai, Saudi and Kuwait. Hence, this trade mission can play a very important role. TAITRA, which was established in 1970 and which had done a wonderful job in promoting Taiwan foreign trade, is organizing the mission.

We are interested in GCC as we think this region is not explored well when compared to Europe, China, and Southeast Asia. Middle East is not explored much by Taiwanese due to perceptions regarding religion, language, culture, and physical distance. This is a mysterious land, still, for Taiwanese. Bahrain is ten hours of flight from Taiwan. That is why very few businessmen come here.

But there are many Bahraini businessmen who have gone to Taiwan for the past 30 years and doing business and I was very surprised to learn that.

If the Bahraini business sector shows interest to trade with Taiwan as a result of this mission, what type of assistance will they receive for materializing the initiative?

We are encouraging Bahrain to organize a similar delegation to Taiwan. For this, I have been talking to BCCI and EDB, we have told them if they are going to Asia, please include Taiwan also. They will sure be surprised once they visit the land.

EDB has a representative in Japan. Last November, he went to Taiwan to promote Bahrain for the first time. He was so impressed with what he saw in Taiwan. So, this trade mission will be visiting EDB on June 1.

For the opening ceremony of the mission, the chairman of the BCCI, Khalid Almoayed has kindly agreed to be present.

Business representatives from Bahrain are invited for one-to- one interactions with the trade mission delegates. Two representatives from TAITRA’s Dubai office will be present at the venue for helping the Bahraini business personas to make the most out of this trade mission.

Two way trade volumes between Taiwan and Bahrain have been resurging after a gap now. Last year, the bilateral trade was about $400 million. Taiwan export to Bahrain had been steadily growing since 2010, but Taiwan import from Bahrain, suffered a dip after 2011, but is fast recovering to strong levels. Also, the trade volume between Bahrain and many other countries are also on an upswing. This is a good sign and shows that the Kingdom’s economy is in good shape.

Two months ago we invited a Taiwan TV station here, they came in March and did an hour news-program which was broadcast in recent days multiple times.

After this, we have received a lot of positive feedback from Taiwan and everyone was surprised to see that Bahrain is a modern country with all the facilities and amenities. They had no idea that the Kingdom is very open and welcoming.

Following the program, people are now considering to include Bahrain as part of their itinerary for future trips to GCC countries.

What factors hurdles an increase in interaction between Taiwan and Bahrain?

There are a number of challenges we face. First of all, we need visibility of Taiwan in Bahrain; for instance, we need more promotion of Taiwan in Bahrain media. Also, trade delegation from Bahrain to Taiwan is a necessity at this time.

Secondly, Dubai is very aggressive.  In February 2014, they had opened direct non-stop flight from Dubai to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Turkey launched direct non-stop flight from Istanbul to Taipei this April, 2015. We hope that Bahrain would follow suit, as it is the gateway to the GCC countries. Bahrain also has good access to Europe, and hence has a great opportunity.

In addition, we have signed an aviation agreement with Bahrain in 1997 so that our airlines can fly here, but it is yet to be implemented. We have to bear in mind that the agreement was signed 17-years ago.

Already many countries in this region have their trade mission in Taiwan, for example, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Oman. Even though, UAE doesn’t have a trade mission in Taiwan, they are very flexible in many ways. We hope, Bahrain will also start a representative office in Taiwan and strengthen our relationship.

A trade office in Taiwan will help Bahrain to target nearby countries like Hong Kong, Philippines and China. EDB has an office in Beijing, but that is not enough. How do you cover the entire China just by being in Beijing, it is a huge country. Taiwan is close to China. We speak the same language and share similar cultures.  Taiwan is the gateway to the China market.

We are very happy about the new Visa system granting multiple entrances to the Taiwanese people, it is good for both, Taiwan and Bahrain. Last year, we had 1200 Taiwanese people visiting Bahrain and this year, we hope, we can double.

What is the size of the Taiwanese community in Bahrain?

Including my family and two cats, there are about forty people!

There is much to learn from Taiwan: the economic growth it achieved in the past few decades and the emergence as an export hub even though being a very small country. Bahrain can also achieve similar success. What is your opinion?

There are many similarities between Taiwan and Bahrain. Fortunately for Bahrain, it has oil, whereas Taiwan had nothing in terms of natural resources.

Taiwan and Bahrain are very similar regarding its people. People in Bahrain impressed me by being open-minded, friendly and helpful, and Taiwanese share the same qualities because we are small islands and we are trading nations. Both nations welcome foreigners with open hands. When I arrived last year, I felt right at home, contrary to my expectations.

Fortunately, Bahrain doesn’t suffer from the natural calamities like earthquakes and typhoons as in Taiwan.

Bahrain has a very bright future and it can be a shining pearl in the GCC.

I have met a few members of the Royal Family, Bahraini government officials and businessmen, and I was impressed to find that they all have one common goal, to build and develop this nation. This unifying force is the same as what we had in Taiwan 40-years ago, when we were very poor and we had only one goal: to develop and build. And, I am seeing it here. So, this country is full of promises.